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<section id="preamble">

<h1>A Midsummer Night's Dream</h1>

<section id="dramatis-personae"><h2>Dramatis Personae</h2>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>THESEUS, Duke of Athens.</li>
  <li>EGEUS, father to Hermia.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="in love with Hermia.">
  <li>LYSANDER</li>
  <li>DEMETRIUS</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>PHILOSTRATE, master of the revels to Theseus.</li>
  <li>QUINCE, a carpenter.</li>
  <li>SNUG, a joiner.</li>
  <li>BOTTOM, a weaver.</li>
  <li>FLUTE, a bellows-mender.</li>
  <li>SNOUT, a tinker.</li>
  <li>STARVELING, a tailor.</li>
  <li>HIPPOLYTA, queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.</li>
  <li>HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.</li>
  <li>HELENA, in love with Demetrius.</li>
  <li>OBERON, king of the fairies.</li>
  <li>TITANIA, queen of the fairies.</li>
  <li>PUCK, or Robin Goodfellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="fairies.">
  <li>PEASEBLOSSOM</li>
  <li>COBWEB</li>
  <li>MOTH</li>
  <li>MUSTARDSEED</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>Other fairies attending their King and Queen.</li>
  <li>Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta.</li>
</ol>

</section>

<div id="scene-description">SCENE  Athens, and a wood near it.</div>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT I</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  Athens. The palace of THESEUS.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and
Attendants</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour</li>
  <li>Draws on apace; four happy days bring in</li>
  <li>Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow</li>
  <li>This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,</li>
  <li class="number">Like to a step-dame or a dowager</li>
  <li>Long withering out a young man revenue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;</li>
  <li>Four nights will quickly dream away the time;</li>
  <li>And then the moon, like to a silver bow</li>
  <li class="number">New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night</li>
  <li>Of our solemnities.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Go, Philostrate,</li>
  <li>Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;</li>
  <li>Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;</li>
  <li class="number">Turn melancholy forth to funerals;</li>
  <li>The pale companion is not for our pomp.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li>Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,</li>
  <li>And won thy love, doing thee injuries;</li>
  <li>But I will wed thee in another key,</li>
  <li class="number">With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Thanks, good Egeus: what's the news with thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>Full of vexation come I, with complaint</li>
  <li>Against my child, my daughter Hermia.</li>
  <li class="number">Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,</li>
  <li>This man hath my consent to marry her.</li>
  <li>Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,</li>
  <li>This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;</li>
  <li>Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,</li>
  <li class="number">And interchanged love-tokens with my child:</li>
  <li>Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,</li>
  <li>With feigning voice verses of feigning love,</li>
  <li>And stolen the impression of her fantasy</li>
  <li>With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,</li>
  <li class="number">Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers</li>
  <li>Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:</li>
  <li>With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,</li>
  <li>Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,</li>
  <li>To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,</li>
  <li class="number">Be it so she; will not here before your grace</li>
  <li>Consent to marry with Demetrius,</li>
  <li>I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,</li>
  <li>As she is mine, I may dispose of her:</li>
  <li>Which shall be either to this gentleman</li>
  <li class="number">Or to her death, according to our law</li>
  <li>Immediately provided in that case.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:</li>
  <li>To you your father should be as a god;</li>
  <li>One that composed your beauties, yea, and one</li>
  <li class="number">To whom you are but as a form in wax</li>
  <li>By him imprinted and within his power</li>
  <li>To leave the figure or disfigure it.</li>
  <li>Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>So is Lysander.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">In himself he is;</li>
  <li>But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,</li>
  <li>The other must be held the worthier.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>I would my father look'd but with my eyes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">I do entreat your grace to pardon me.</li>
  <li>I know not by what power I am made bold,</li>
  <li>Nor how it may concern my modesty,</li>
  <li>In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;</li>
  <li>But I beseech your grace that I may know</li>
  <li class="number">The worst that may befall me in this case,</li>
  <li>If I refuse to wed Demetrius.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Either to die the death or to abjure</li>
  <li>For ever the society of men.</li>
  <li>Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;</li>
  <li class="number">Know of your youth, examine well your blood,</li>
  <li>Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,</li>
  <li>You can endure the livery of a nun,</li>
  <li>For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,</li>
  <li>To live a barren sister all your life,</li>
  <li class="number">Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.</li>
  <li>Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,</li>
  <li>To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;</li>
  <li>But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,</li>
  <li>Than that which withering on the virgin thorn</li>
  <li class="number">Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,</li>
  <li>Ere I will my virgin patent up</li>
  <li>Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke</li>
  <li>My soul consents not to give sovereignty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">Take time to pause; and, by the nest new moon — </li>
  <li>The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,</li>
  <li>For everlasting bond of fellowship — </li>
  <li>Upon that day either prepare to die</li>
  <li>For disobedience to your father's will,</li>
  <li class="number">Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would;</li>
  <li>Or on Diana's altar to protest</li>
  <li>For aye austerity and single life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Relent, sweet Hermia: and, Lysander, yield</li>
  <li>Thy crazed title to my certain right.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">You have her father's love, Demetrius;</li>
  <li>Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,</li>
  <li>And what is mine my love shall render him.</li>
  <li>And she is mine, and all my right of her</li>
  <li class="number">I do estate unto Demetrius.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>I am, my lord, as well derived as he,</li>
  <li>As well possess'd; my love is more than his;</li>
  <li>My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,</li>
  <li>If not with vantage, as Demetrius';</li>
  <li class="number">And, which is more than all these boasts can be,</li>
  <li>I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:</li>
  <li>Why should not I then prosecute my right?</li>
  <li>Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,</li>
  <li>Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,</li>
  <li class="number">And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,</li>
  <li>Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,</li>
  <li>Upon this spotted and inconstant man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>I must confess that I have heard so much,</li>
  <li>And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;</li>
  <li class="number">But, being over-full of self-affairs,</li>
  <li>My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;</li>
  <li>And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,</li>
  <li>I have some private schooling for you both.</li>
  <li>For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself</li>
  <li class="number">To fit your fancies to your father's will;</li>
  <li>Or else the law of Athens yields you up — </li>
  <li>Which by no means we may extenuate — </li>
  <li>To death, or to a vow of single life.</li>
  <li>Come, my Hippolyta: what cheer, my love?</li>
  <li class="number">Demetrius and Egeus, go along:</li>
  <li>I must employ you in some business</li>
  <li>Against our nuptial and confer with you</li>
  <li>Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>With duty and desire we follow you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?</li>
  <li>How chance the roses there do fade so fast?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Belike for want of rain, which I could well</li>
  <li>Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,</li>
  <li class="number">Could ever hear by tale or history,</li>
  <li>The course of true love never did run smooth;</li>
  <li>But, either it was different in blood —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Or else misgraffed in respect of years —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">O spite! too old to be engaged to young.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Or else it stood upon the choice of friends —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,</li>
  <li>War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,</li>
  <li class="number">Making it momentany as a sound,</li>
  <li>Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;</li>
  <li>Brief as the lightning in the collied night,</li>
  <li>That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,</li>
  <li>And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'</li>
  <li class="number">The jaws of darkness do devour it up:</li>
  <li>So quick bright things come to confusion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,</li>
  <li>It stands as an edict in destiny:</li>
  <li>Then let us teach our trial patience,</li>
  <li class="number">Because it is a customary cross,</li>
  <li>As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,</li>
  <li>Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>A good persuasion: therefore, hear me, Hermia.</li>
  <li>I have a widow aunt, a dowager</li>
  <li class="number">Of great revenue, and she hath no child:</li>
  <li>From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;</li>
  <li>And she respects me as her only son.</li>
  <li>There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;</li>
  <li>And to that place the sharp Athenian law</li>
  <li class="number">Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,</li>
  <li>Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;</li>
  <li>And in the wood, a league without the town,</li>
  <li>Where I did meet thee once with Helena,</li>
  <li>To do observance to a morn of May,</li>
  <li class="number">There will I stay for thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>My good Lysander!</li>
  <li>I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,</li>
  <li>By his best arrow with the golden head,</li>
  <li>By the simplicity of Venus' doves,</li>
  <li class="number">By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,</li>
  <li>And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,</li>
  <li>When the false Troyan under sail was seen,</li>
  <li>By all the vows that ever men have broke,</li>
  <li>In number more than ever women spoke,</li>
  <li class="number">In that same place thou hast appointed me,</li>
  <li>To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter HELENA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>God speed fair Helena! whither away?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.</li>
  <li class="number">Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!</li>
  <li>Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air</li>
  <li>More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,</li>
  <li>When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.</li>
  <li>Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,</li>
  <li class="number">Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;</li>
  <li>My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,</li>
  <li>My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.</li>
  <li>Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,</li>
  <li>The rest I'd give to be to you translated.</li>
  <li class="number">O, teach me how you look, and with what art</li>
  <li>You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>I give him curses, yet he gives me love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li class="number">O that my prayers could such affection move!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>The more I hate, the more he follows me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>The more I love, the more he hateth me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;</li>
  <li>Lysander and myself will fly this place.</li>
  <li>Before the time I did Lysander see,</li>
  <li>Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me:</li>
  <li>O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,</li>
  <li class="number">That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:</li>
  <li>To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold</li>
  <li>Her silver visage in the watery glass,</li>
  <li>Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,</li>
  <li class="number">A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,</li>
  <li>Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>And in the wood, where often you and I</li>
  <li>Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie,</li>
  <li>Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,</li>
  <li class="number">There my Lysander and myself shall meet;</li>
  <li>And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,</li>
  <li>To seek new friends and stranger companies.</li>
  <li>Farewell, sweet playfellow: pray thou for us;</li>
  <li>And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!</li>
  <li class="number">Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight</li>
  <li>From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>I will, my Hermia.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit HERMIA</li>
  <li>Helena, adieu:</li>
  <li>As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li class="number">How happy some o'er other some can be!</li>
  <li>Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.</li>
  <li>But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;</li>
  <li>He will not know what all but he do know:</li>
  <li>And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,</li>
  <li class="number">So I, admiring of his qualities:</li>
  <li>Things base and vile, folding no quantity,</li>
  <li>Love can transpose to form and dignity:</li>
  <li>Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;</li>
  <li>And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:</li>
  <li class="number">Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;</li>
  <li>Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:</li>
  <li>And therefore is Love said to be a child,</li>
  <li>Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.</li>
  <li>As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,</li>
  <li class="number">So the boy Love is perjured every where:</li>
  <li>For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,</li>
  <li>He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;</li>
  <li>And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,</li>
  <li>So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.</li>
  <li class="number">I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:</li>
  <li>Then to the wood will he to-morrow night</li>
  <li>Pursue her; and for this intelligence</li>
  <li>If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:</li>
  <li>But herein mean I to enrich my pain,</li>
  <li class="number">To have his sight thither and back again.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  Athens. QUINCE'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
STARVELING</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Is all our company here?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>You were best to call them generally, man by man,</li>
  <li>according to the scrip.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is</li>
  <li class="number">thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our</li>
  <li>interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his</li>
  <li>wedding-day at night.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats</li>
  <li>on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow</li>
  <li class="number">to a point.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Marry, our play is, The most lamentable comedy, and</li>
  <li>most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a</li>
  <li>merry. Now, good Peter Quince, call forth your</li>
  <li class="number">actors by the scroll. Masters, spread yourselves.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Answer as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>What is Pyramus? a lover, or a tyrant?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>That will ask some tears in the true performing of</li>
  <li>it: if I do it, let the audience look to their</li>
  <li>eyes; I will move storms, I will condole in some</li>
  <li>measure. To the rest: yet my chief humour is for a</li>
  <li class="number">tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to</li>
  <li>tear a cat in, to make all split.</li>
  <li>The raging rocks</li>
  <li>And shivering shocks</li>
  <li>Shall break the locks</li>
  <li class="number">Of prison gates;</li>
  <li>And Phibbus' car</li>
  <li>Shall shine from far</li>
  <li>And make and mar</li>
  <li>The foolish Fates.</li>
  <li class="number">This was lofty! Now name the rest of the players.</li>
  <li>This is Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein; a lover is</li>
  <li>more condoling.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>Here, Peter Quince.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">Flute, you must take Thisby on you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>What is Thisby? a wandering knight?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>It is the lady that Pyramus must love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>Nay, faith, let me not play a woman; I have a beard coming.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>That's all one: you shall play it in a mask, and</li>
  <li class="number">you may speak as small as you will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll</li>
  <li>speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,</li>
  <li>Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,</li>
  <li>and lady dear!'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">No, no; you must play Pyramus: and, Flute, you Thisby.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Well, proceed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Robin Starveling, the tailor.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">STARVELING</li>
  <li>Here, Peter Quince.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.</li>
  <li class="number">Tom Snout, the tinker.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>Here, Peter Quince.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>You, Pyramus' father: myself, Thisby's father:</li>
  <li>Snug, the joiner; you, the lion's part: and, I</li>
  <li>hope, here is a play fitted.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNUG</li>
  <li class="number">Have you the lion's part written? pray you, if it</li>
  <li>be, give it me, for I am slow of study.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will</li>
  <li>do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar,</li>
  <li class="number">that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again,</li>
  <li>let him roar again.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>An you should do it too terribly, you would fright</li>
  <li>the duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek;</li>
  <li>and that were enough to hang us all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ALL</li>
  <li class="number">That would hang us, every mother's son.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the</li>
  <li>ladies out of their wits, they would have no more</li>
  <li>discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my</li>
  <li>voice so that I will roar you as gently as any</li>
  <li class="number">sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any</li>
  <li>nightingale.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a</li>
  <li>sweet-faced man; a proper man, as one shall see in a</li>
  <li>summer's day; a most lovely gentleman-like man:</li>
  <li class="number">therefore you must needs play Pyramus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best</li>
  <li>to play it in?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Why, what you will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I will discharge it in either your straw-colour</li>
  <li class="number">beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain</li>
  <li>beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your</li>
  <li>perfect yellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and</li>
  <li>then you will play bare-faced. But, masters, here</li>
  <li class="number">are your parts: and I am to entreat you, request</li>
  <li>you and desire you, to con them by to-morrow night;</li>
  <li>and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without the</li>
  <li>town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse, for if</li>
  <li>we meet in the city, we shall be dogged with</li>
  <li class="number">company, and our devices known. In the meantime I</li>
  <li>will draw a bill of properties, such as our play</li>
  <li>wants. I pray you, fail me not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>We will meet; and there we may rehearse most</li>
  <li>obscenely and courageously. Take pains; be perfect: adieu.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">At the duke's oak we meet.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Enough; hold or cut bow-strings.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT II</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A wood near Athens.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>How now, spirit! whither wander you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Fairy</li>
  <li>Over hill, over dale,</li>
  <li>Thorough bush, thorough brier,</li>
  <li>Over park, over pale,</li>
  <li class="number">Thorough flood, thorough fire,</li>
  <li>I do wander everywhere,</li>
  <li>Swifter than the moon's sphere;</li>
  <li>And I serve the fairy queen,</li>
  <li>To dew her orbs upon the green.</li>
  <li class="number">The cowslips tall her pensioners be:</li>
  <li>In their gold coats spots you see;</li>
  <li>Those be rubies, fairy favours,</li>
  <li>In those freckles live their savours:</li>
  <li>I must go seek some dewdrops here</li>
  <li class="number">And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.</li>
  <li>Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:</li>
  <li>Our queen and all our elves come here anon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>The king doth keep his revels here to-night:</li>
  <li>Take heed the queen come not within his sight;</li>
  <li class="number">For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,</li>
  <li>Because that she as her attendant hath</li>
  <li>A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;</li>
  <li>She never had so sweet a changeling;</li>
  <li>And jealous Oberon would have the child</li>
  <li class="number">Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;</li>
  <li>But she perforce withholds the loved boy,</li>
  <li>Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:</li>
  <li>And now they never meet in grove or green,</li>
  <li>By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,</li>
  <li class="number">But, they do square, that all their elves for fear</li>
  <li>Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Fairy</li>
  <li>Either I mistake your shape and making quite,</li>
  <li>Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite</li>
  <li>Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he</li>
  <li class="number">That frights the maidens of the villagery;</li>
  <li>Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern</li>
  <li>And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;</li>
  <li>And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;</li>
  <li>Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?</li>
  <li class="number">Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,</li>
  <li>You do their work, and they shall have good luck:</li>
  <li>Are not you he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Thou speak'st aright;</li>
  <li>I am that merry wanderer of the night.</li>
  <li class="number">I jest to Oberon and make him smile</li>
  <li>When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,</li>
  <li>Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:</li>
  <li>And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,</li>
  <li>In very likeness of a roasted crab,</li>
  <li class="number">And when she drinks, against her lips I bob</li>
  <li>And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.</li>
  <li>The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,</li>
  <li>Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;</li>
  <li>Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,</li>
  <li class="number">And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;</li>
  <li>And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,</li>
  <li>And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear</li>
  <li>A merrier hour was never wasted there.</li>
  <li>But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Fairy</li>
  <li class="number">And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train;
from the other, TITANIA, with hers</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:</li>
  <li>I have forsworn his bed and company.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li class="number">Then I must be thy lady: but I know</li>
  <li>When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,</li>
  <li>And in the shape of Corin sat all day,</li>
  <li>Playing on pipes of corn and versing love</li>
  <li>To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,</li>
  <li class="number">Come from the farthest Steppe of India?</li>
  <li>But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,</li>
  <li>Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,</li>
  <li>To Theseus must be wedded, and you come</li>
  <li>To give their bed joy and prosperity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,</li>
  <li>Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,</li>
  <li>Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?</li>
  <li>Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night</li>
  <li>From Perigenia, whom he ravished?</li>
  <li class="number">And make him with fair AEgle break his faith,</li>
  <li>With Ariadne and Antiopa?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>These are the forgeries of jealousy:</li>
  <li>And never, since the middle summer's spring,</li>
  <li>Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,</li>
  <li class="number">By paved fountain or by rushy brook,</li>
  <li>Or in the beached margent of the sea,</li>
  <li>To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,</li>
  <li>But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.</li>
  <li>Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,</li>
  <li class="number">As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea</li>
  <li>Contagious fogs; which falling in the land</li>
  <li>Have every pelting river made so proud</li>
  <li>That they have overborne their continents:</li>
  <li>The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,</li>
  <li class="number">The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn</li>
  <li>Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;</li>
  <li>The fold stands empty in the drowned field,</li>
  <li>And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;</li>
  <li>The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,</li>
  <li class="number">And the quaint mazes in the wanton green</li>
  <li>For lack of tread are undistinguishable:</li>
  <li>The human mortals want their winter here;</li>
  <li>No night is now with hymn or carol blest:</li>
  <li>Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,</li>
  <li class="number">Pale in her anger, washes all the air,</li>
  <li>That rheumatic diseases do abound:</li>
  <li>And thorough this distemperature we see</li>
  <li>The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts</li>
  <li>Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,</li>
  <li class="number">And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown</li>
  <li>An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds</li>
  <li>Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,</li>
  <li>The childing autumn, angry winter, change</li>
  <li>Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,</li>
  <li class="number">By their increase, now knows not which is which:</li>
  <li>And this same progeny of evils comes</li>
  <li>From our debate, from our dissension;</li>
  <li>We are their parents and original.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Do you amend it then; it lies in you:</li>
  <li class="number">Why should Titania cross her Oberon?</li>
  <li>I do but beg a little changeling boy,</li>
  <li>To be my henchman.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Set your heart at rest:</li>
  <li>The fairy land buys not the child of me.</li>
  <li class="number">His mother was a votaress of my order:</li>
  <li>And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,</li>
  <li>Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,</li>
  <li>And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,</li>
  <li>Marking the embarked traders on the flood,</li>
  <li class="number">When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive</li>
  <li>And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;</li>
  <li>Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait</li>
  <li>Following —  her womb then rich with my young squire —  </li>
  <li>Would imitate, and sail upon the land,</li>
  <li class="number">To fetch me trifles, and return again,</li>
  <li>As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.</li>
  <li>But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;</li>
  <li>And for her sake do I rear up her boy,</li>
  <li>And for her sake I will not part with him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">How long within this wood intend you stay?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.</li>
  <li>If you will patiently dance in our round</li>
  <li>And see our moonlight revels, go with us;</li>
  <li>If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!</li>
  <li>We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit TITANIA with her train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove</li>
  <li>Till I torment thee for this injury.</li>
  <li class="number">My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest</li>
  <li>Since once I sat upon a promontory,</li>
  <li>And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back</li>
  <li>Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath</li>
  <li>That the rude sea grew civil at her song</li>
  <li class="number">And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,</li>
  <li>To hear the sea-maid's music.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>I remember.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,</li>
  <li>Flying between the cold moon and the earth,</li>
  <li class="number">Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took</li>
  <li>At a fair vestal throned by the west,</li>
  <li>And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,</li>
  <li>As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;</li>
  <li>But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft</li>
  <li class="number">Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,</li>
  <li>And the imperial votaress passed on,</li>
  <li>In maiden meditation, fancy-free.</li>
  <li>Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:</li>
  <li>It fell upon a little western flower,</li>
  <li class="number">Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,</li>
  <li>And maidens call it love-in-idleness.</li>
  <li>Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:</li>
  <li>The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid</li>
  <li>Will make or man or woman madly dote</li>
  <li class="number">Upon the next live creature that it sees.</li>
  <li>Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again</li>
  <li>Ere the leviathan can swim a league.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>I'll put a girdle round about the earth</li>
  <li>In forty minutes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">Having once this juice,</li>
  <li>I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,</li>
  <li>And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.</li>
  <li>The next thing then she waking looks upon,</li>
  <li>Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,</li>
  <li class="number">On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,</li>
  <li>She shall pursue it with the soul of love:</li>
  <li>And ere I take this charm from off her sight,</li>
  <li>As I can take it with another herb,</li>
  <li>I'll make her render up her page to me.</li>
  <li class="number">But who comes here? I am invisible;</li>
  <li>And I will overhear their conference.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.</li>
  <li>Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?</li>
  <li>The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.</li>
  <li class="number">Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;</li>
  <li>And here am I, and wode within this wood,</li>
  <li>Because I cannot meet my Hermia.</li>
  <li>Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;</li>
  <li class="number">But yet you draw not iron, for my heart</li>
  <li>Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,</li>
  <li>And I shall have no power to follow you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?</li>
  <li>Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth</li>
  <li class="number">Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>And even for that do I love you the more.</li>
  <li>I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,</li>
  <li>The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:</li>
  <li>Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,</li>
  <li class="number">Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,</li>
  <li>Unworthy as I am, to follow you.</li>
  <li>What worser place can I beg in your love —  </li>
  <li>And yet a place of high respect with me —  </li>
  <li>Than to be used as you use your dog?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;</li>
  <li>For I am sick when I do look on thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>And I am sick when I look not on you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>You do impeach your modesty too much,</li>
  <li>To leave the city and commit yourself</li>
  <li class="number">Into the hands of one that loves you not;</li>
  <li>To trust the opportunity of night</li>
  <li>And the ill counsel of a desert place</li>
  <li>With the rich worth of your virginity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Your virtue is my privilege: for that</li>
  <li class="number">It is not night when I do see your face,</li>
  <li>Therefore I think I am not in the night;</li>
  <li>Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,</li>
  <li>For you in my respect are all the world:</li>
  <li>Then how can it be said I am alone,</li>
  <li class="number">When all the world is here to look on me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,</li>
  <li>And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>The wildest hath not such a heart as you.</li>
  <li>Run when you will, the story shall be changed:</li>
  <li class="number">Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;</li>
  <li>The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind</li>
  <li>Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,</li>
  <li>When cowardice pursues and valour flies.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I will not stay thy questions; let me go:</li>
  <li class="number">Or, if thou follow me, do not believe</li>
  <li>But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,</li>
  <li>You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!</li>
  <li>Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:</li>
  <li class="number">We cannot fight for love, as men may do;</li>
  <li>We should be wood and were not made to woo.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,</li>
  <li>To die upon the hand I love so well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Fare thee well, nymph: ere he do leave this grove,</li>
  <li class="number">Thou shalt fly him and he shall seek thy love.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Re-enter PUCK</li>
  <li>Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Ay, there it is.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>I pray thee, give it me.</li>
  <li>I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,</li>
  <li class="number">Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,</li>
  <li>Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,</li>
  <li>With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:</li>
  <li>There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,</li>
  <li>Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;</li>
  <li class="number">And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,</li>
  <li>Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:</li>
  <li>And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,</li>
  <li>And make her full of hateful fantasies.</li>
  <li>Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:</li>
  <li class="number">A sweet Athenian lady is in love</li>
  <li>With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes;</li>
  <li>But do it when the next thing he espies</li>
  <li>May be the lady: thou shalt know the man</li>
  <li>By the Athenian garments he hath on.</li>
  <li class="number">Effect it with some care, that he may prove</li>
  <li>More fond on her than she upon her love:</li>
  <li>And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Fear not, my lord, your servant shall do so.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  Another part of the wood.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter TITANIA, with her train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Come, now a roundel and a fairy song;</li>
  <li>Then, for the third part of a minute, hence;</li>
  <li>Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds,</li>
  <li>Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,</li>
  <li class="number">To make my small elves coats, and some keep back</li>
  <li>The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders</li>
  <li>At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;</li>
  <li>Then to your offices and let me rest.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">The Fairies sing</li>
  <li>You spotted snakes with double tongue,</li>
  <li class="number">Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;</li>
  <li>Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,</li>
  <li>Come not near our fairy queen.</li>
  <li>Philomel, with melody</li>
  <li>Sing in our sweet lullaby;</li>
  <li class="number">Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:</li>
  <li>Never harm,</li>
  <li>Nor spell nor charm,</li>
  <li>Come our lovely lady nigh;</li>
  <li>So, good night, with lullaby.</li>
  <li class="number">Weaving spiders, come not here;</li>
  <li>Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!</li>
  <li>Beetles black, approach not near;</li>
  <li>Worm nor snail, do no offence.</li>
  <li>Philomel, with melody, etc..</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Fairy</li>
  <li class="number">Hence, away! now all is well:</li>
  <li>One aloof stand sentinel.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Fairies. TITANIA sleeps</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA's eyelids</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>What thou seest when thou dost wake,</li>
  <li>Do it for thy true-love take,</li>
  <li>Love and languish for his sake:</li>
  <li class="number">Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,</li>
  <li>Pard, or boar with bristled hair,</li>
  <li>In thy eye that shall appear</li>
  <li>When thou wakest, it is thy dear:</li>
  <li>Wake when some vile thing is near.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">Fair love, you faint with wandering in the wood;</li>
  <li>And to speak troth, I have forgot our way:</li>
  <li>We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,</li>
  <li>And tarry for the comfort of the day.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed;</li>
  <li class="number">For I upon this bank will rest my head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;</li>
  <li>One heart, one bed, two bosoms and one troth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,</li>
  <li>Lie further off yet, do not lie so near.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!</li>
  <li>Love takes the meaning in love's conference.</li>
  <li>I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit</li>
  <li>So that but one heart we can make of it;</li>
  <li>Two bosoms interchained with an oath;</li>
  <li class="number">So then two bosoms and a single troth.</li>
  <li>Then by your side no bed-room me deny;</li>
  <li>For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Lysander riddles very prettily:</li>
  <li>Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,</li>
  <li class="number">If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.</li>
  <li>But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy</li>
  <li>Lie further off; in human modesty,</li>
  <li>Such separation as may well be said</li>
  <li>Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,</li>
  <li class="number">So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:</li>
  <li>Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Amen, amen, to that fair prayer, say I;</li>
  <li>And then end life when I end loyalty!</li>
  <li>Here is my bed: sleep give thee all his rest!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">They sleep</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter PUCK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Through the forest have I gone.</li>
  <li>But Athenian found I none,</li>
  <li>On whose eyes I might approve</li>
  <li>This flower's force in stirring love.</li>
  <li class="number">Night and silence. — Who is here?</li>
  <li>Weeds of Athens he doth wear:</li>
  <li>This is he, my master said,</li>
  <li>Despised the Athenian maid;</li>
  <li>And here the maiden, sleeping sound,</li>
  <li class="number">On the dank and dirty ground.</li>
  <li>Pretty soul! she durst not lie</li>
  <li>Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.</li>
  <li>Churl, upon thy eyes I throw</li>
  <li>All the power this charm doth owe.</li>
  <li class="number">When thou wakest, let love forbid</li>
  <li>Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:</li>
  <li>So awake when I am gone;</li>
  <li>For I must now to Oberon.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O, wilt thou darkling leave me? do not so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Stay, on thy peril: I alone will go.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!</li>
  <li>The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.</li>
  <li class="number">Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;</li>
  <li>For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.</li>
  <li>How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:</li>
  <li>If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.</li>
  <li>No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;</li>
  <li class="number">For beasts that meet me run away for fear:</li>
  <li>Therefore no marvel though Demetrius</li>
  <li>Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.</li>
  <li>What wicked and dissembling glass of mine</li>
  <li>Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?</li>
  <li class="number">But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!</li>
  <li>Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.</li>
  <li>Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Awaking  And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.</li>
  <li>Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,</li>
  <li class="number">That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.</li>
  <li>Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word</li>
  <li>Is that vile name to perish on my sword!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Do not say so, Lysander; say not so</li>
  <li>What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?</li>
  <li class="number">Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Content with Hermia! No; I do repent</li>
  <li>The tedious minutes I with her have spent.</li>
  <li>Not Hermia but Helena I love:</li>
  <li>Who will not change a raven for a dove?</li>
  <li class="number">The will of man is by his reason sway'd;</li>
  <li>And reason says you are the worthier maid.</li>
  <li>Things growing are not ripe until their season</li>
  <li>So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;</li>
  <li>And touching now the point of human skill,</li>
  <li class="number">Reason becomes the marshal to my will</li>
  <li>And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook</li>
  <li>Love's stories written in love's richest book.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?</li>
  <li>When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?</li>
  <li class="number">Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,</li>
  <li>That I did never, no, nor never can,</li>
  <li>Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,</li>
  <li>But you must flout my insufficiency?</li>
  <li>Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,</li>
  <li class="number">In such disdainful manner me to woo.</li>
  <li>But fare you well: perforce I must confess</li>
  <li>I thought you lord of more true gentleness.</li>
  <li>O, that a lady, of one man refused.</li>
  <li>Should of another therefore be abused!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there:</li>
  <li>And never mayst thou come Lysander near!</li>
  <li>For as a surfeit of the sweetest things</li>
  <li>The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,</li>
  <li>Or as tie heresies that men do leave</li>
  <li class="number">Are hated most of those they did deceive,</li>
  <li>So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,</li>
  <li>Of all be hated, but the most of me!</li>
  <li>And, all my powers, address your love and might</li>
  <li>To honour Helen and to be her knight!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">Awaking  Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best</li>
  <li>To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!</li>
  <li>Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!</li>
  <li>Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:</li>
  <li>Methought a serpent eat my heart away,</li>
  <li class="number">And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.</li>
  <li>Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!</li>
  <li>What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?</li>
  <li>Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;</li>
  <li>Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.</li>
  <li class="number">No? then I well perceive you all not nigh</li>
  <li>Either death or you I'll find immediately.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT III</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and
STARVELING</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Are we all met?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place</li>
  <li>for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our</li>
  <li>stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we</li>
  <li class="number">will do it in action as we will do it before the duke.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Peter Quince —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>What sayest thou, bully Bottom?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and</li>
  <li>Thisby that will never please. First, Pyramus must</li>
  <li class="number">draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies</li>
  <li>cannot abide. How answer you that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>By'r lakin, a parlous fear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">STARVELING</li>
  <li>I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.</li>
  <li class="number">Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to</li>
  <li>say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that</li>
  <li>Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more</li>
  <li>better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not</li>
  <li>Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them</li>
  <li class="number">out of fear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be</li>
  <li>written in eight and six.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">STARVELING</li>
  <li class="number">I fear it, I promise you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to</li>
  <li>bring in — God shield us! — a lion among ladies, is a</li>
  <li>most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful</li>
  <li>wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to</li>
  <li class="number">look to 't.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must</li>
  <li>be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself</li>
  <li>must speak through, saying thus, or to the same</li>
  <li class="number">defect —  'Ladies,' — or 'Fair-ladies — I would wish</li>
  <li>You,' — or 'I would request you,' — or 'I would</li>
  <li>entreat you —  not to fear, not to tremble: my life</li>
  <li>for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it</li>
  <li>were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a</li>
  <li class="number">man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name</li>
  <li>his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Well it shall be so. But there is two hard things;</li>
  <li>that is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for,</li>
  <li>you know, Pyramus and Thisby meet by moonlight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li class="number">Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>A calendar, a calendar! look in the almanac; find</li>
  <li>out moonshine, find out moonshine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Yes, it doth shine that night.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Why, then may you leave a casement of the great</li>
  <li class="number">chamber window, where we play, open, and the moon</li>
  <li>may shine in at the casement.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns</li>
  <li>and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to</li>
  <li>present, the person of Moonshine. Then, there is</li>
  <li class="number">another thing: we must have a wall in the great</li>
  <li>chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby says the story, did</li>
  <li>talk through the chink of a wall.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Some man or other must present Wall: and let him</li>
  <li class="number">have some plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast</li>
  <li>about him, to signify wall; and let him hold his</li>
  <li>fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus</li>
  <li>and Thisby whisper.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down,</li>
  <li class="number">every mother's son, and rehearse your parts.</li>
  <li>Pyramus, you begin: when you have spoken your</li>
  <li>speech, enter into that brake: and so every one</li>
  <li>according to his cue.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter PUCK behind</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here,</li>
  <li class="number">So near the cradle of the fairy queen?</li>
  <li>What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;</li>
  <li>An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">Odours, odours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li> — odours savours sweet:</li>
  <li>So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.</li>
  <li>But hark, a voice! stay thou but here awhile,</li>
  <li>And by and by I will to thee appear.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>Must I speak now?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes</li>
  <li>but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,</li>
  <li class="number">Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,</li>
  <li>Most brisky juvenal and eke most lovely Jew,</li>
  <li>As true as truest horse that yet would never tire,</li>
  <li>I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>'Ninus' tomb,' man: why, you must not speak that</li>
  <li class="number">yet; that you answer to Pyramus: you speak all your</li>
  <li>part at once, cues and all Pyramus enter: your cue</li>
  <li>is past; it is, 'never tire.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>O —  As true as truest horse, that yet would</li>
  <li>never tire.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>O monstrous! O strange! we are haunted. Pray,</li>
  <li>masters! fly, masters! Help!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt QUINCE, SNUG, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,</li>
  <li>Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:</li>
  <li class="number">Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,</li>
  <li>A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;</li>
  <li>And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,</li>
  <li>Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Why do they run away? this is a knavery of them to</li>
  <li class="number">make me afeard.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter SNOUT</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNOUT</li>
  <li>O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>What do you see? you see an asshead of your own, do</li>
  <li>you?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit SNOUT</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter QUINCE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art</li>
  <li class="number">translated.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;</li>
  <li>to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir</li>
  <li>from this place, do what they can: I will walk up</li>
  <li>and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear</li>
  <li class="number">I am not afraid.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Sings</li>
  <li>The ousel cock so black of hue,</li>
  <li>With orange-tawny bill,</li>
  <li>The throstle with his note so true,</li>
  <li>The wren with little quill —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li class="number">Awaking  What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Sings</li>
  <li>The finch, the sparrow and the lark,</li>
  <li>The plain-song cuckoo gray,</li>
  <li>Whose note full many a man doth mark,</li>
  <li class="number">And dares not answer nay; — </li>
  <li>for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish</li>
  <li>a bird? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry</li>
  <li>'cuckoo' never so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:</li>
  <li class="number">Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;</li>
  <li>So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;</li>
  <li>And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me</li>
  <li>On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason</li>
  <li class="number">for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and</li>
  <li>love keep little company together now-a-days; the</li>
  <li>more the pity that some honest neighbours will not</li>
  <li>make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out</li>
  <li>of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Out of this wood do not desire to go:</li>
  <li>Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.</li>
  <li>I am a spirit of no common rate;</li>
  <li class="number">The summer still doth tend upon my state;</li>
  <li>And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;</li>
  <li>I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,</li>
  <li>And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,</li>
  <li>And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;</li>
  <li class="number">And I will purge thy mortal grossness so</li>
  <li>That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.</li>
  <li>Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PEASEBLOSSOM</li>
  <li>Ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">COBWEB</li>
  <li>And I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MOTH</li>
  <li class="number">And I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MUSTARDSEED</li>
  <li>And I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ALL</li>
  <li>Where shall we go?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;</li>
  <li>Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;</li>
  <li class="number">Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,</li>
  <li>With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;</li>
  <li>The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,</li>
  <li>And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs</li>
  <li>And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,</li>
  <li class="number">To have my love to bed and to arise;</li>
  <li>And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies</li>
  <li>To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:</li>
  <li>Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PEASEBLOSSOM</li>
  <li>Hail, mortal!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">COBWEB</li>
  <li class="number">Hail!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MOTH</li>
  <li>Hail!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MUSTARDSEED</li>
  <li>Hail!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your</li>
  <li>worship's name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">COBWEB</li>
  <li class="number">Cobweb.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master</li>
  <li>Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with</li>
  <li>you. Your name, honest gentleman?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PEASEBLOSSOM</li>
  <li>Peaseblossom.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your</li>
  <li>mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good</li>
  <li>Master Peaseblossom, I shall desire you of more</li>
  <li>acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MUSTARDSEED</li>
  <li>Mustardseed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well:</li>
  <li>that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath</li>
  <li>devoured many a gentleman of your house: I promise</li>
  <li>you your kindred had made my eyes water ere now. I</li>
  <li>desire your more acquaintance, good Master</li>
  <li class="number">Mustardseed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.</li>
  <li>The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;</li>
  <li>And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,</li>
  <li>Lamenting some enforced chastity.</li>
  <li class="number">Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  Another part of the wood.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter OBERON</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>I wonder if Titania be awaked;</li>
  <li>Then, what it was that next came in her eye,</li>
  <li>Which she must dote on in extremity.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter PUCK</li>
  <li>Here comes my messenger.</li>
  <li class="number">How now, mad spirit!</li>
  <li>What night-rule now about this haunted grove?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>My mistress with a monster is in love.</li>
  <li>Near to her close and consecrated bower,</li>
  <li>While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,</li>
  <li class="number">A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,</li>
  <li>That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,</li>
  <li>Were met together to rehearse a play</li>
  <li>Intended for great Theseus' nuptial-day.</li>
  <li>The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort,</li>
  <li class="number">Who Pyramus presented, in their sport</li>
  <li>Forsook his scene and enter'd in a brake</li>
  <li>When I did him at this advantage take,</li>
  <li>An ass's nole I fixed on his head:</li>
  <li>Anon his Thisbe must be answered,</li>
  <li class="number">And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,</li>
  <li>As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,</li>
  <li>Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,</li>
  <li>Rising and cawing at the gun's report,</li>
  <li>Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,</li>
  <li class="number">So, at his sight, away his fellows fly;</li>
  <li>And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls;</li>
  <li>He murder cries and help from Athens calls.</li>
  <li>Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears</li>
  <li>thus strong,</li>
  <li class="number">Made senseless things begin to do them wrong;</li>
  <li>For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;</li>
  <li>Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all</li>
  <li>things catch.</li>
  <li>I led them on in this distracted fear,</li>
  <li class="number">And left sweet Pyramus translated there:</li>
  <li>When in that moment, so it came to pass,</li>
  <li>Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>This falls out better than I could devise.</li>
  <li>But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes</li>
  <li class="number">With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>I took him sleeping —  that is finish'd too —  </li>
  <li>And the Athenian woman by his side:</li>
  <li>That, when he waked, of force she must be eyed.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter HERMIA and DEMETRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Stand close: this is the same Athenian.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">This is the woman, but not this the man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?</li>
  <li>Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Now I but chide; but I should use thee worse,</li>
  <li>For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse,</li>
  <li class="number">If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,</li>
  <li>Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,</li>
  <li>And kill me too.</li>
  <li>The sun was not so true unto the day</li>
  <li>As he to me: would he have stolen away</li>
  <li class="number">From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon</li>
  <li>This whole earth may be bored and that the moon</li>
  <li>May through the centre creep and so displease</li>
  <li>Her brother's noontide with Antipodes.</li>
  <li>It cannot be but thou hast murder'd him;</li>
  <li class="number">So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>So should the murder'd look, and so should I,</li>
  <li>Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty:</li>
  <li>Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,</li>
  <li>As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">What's this to my Lysander? where is he?</li>
  <li>Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Out, dog! out, cur! thou drivest me past the bounds</li>
  <li>Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?</li>
  <li class="number">Henceforth be never number'd among men!</li>
  <li>O, once tell true, tell true, even for my sake!</li>
  <li>Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,</li>
  <li>And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!</li>
  <li>Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?</li>
  <li class="number">An adder did it; for with doubler tongue</li>
  <li>Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>You spend your passion on a misprised mood:</li>
  <li>I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;</li>
  <li>Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>An if I could, what should I get therefore?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>A privilege never to see me more.</li>
  <li>And from thy hated presence part I so:</li>
  <li>See me no more, whether he be dead or no.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">There is no following her in this fierce vein:</li>
  <li>Here therefore for a while I will remain.</li>
  <li>So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow</li>
  <li>For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe:</li>
  <li>Which now in some slight measure it will pay,</li>
  <li class="number">If for his tender here I make some stay.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Lies down and sleeps</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>What hast thou done? thou hast mistaken quite</li>
  <li>And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight:</li>
  <li>Of thy misprision must perforce ensue</li>
  <li>Some true love turn'd and not a false turn'd true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,</li>
  <li>A million fail, confounding oath on oath.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>About the wood go swifter than the wind,</li>
  <li>And Helena of Athens look thou find:</li>
  <li>All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,</li>
  <li class="number">With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear:</li>
  <li>By some illusion see thou bring her here:</li>
  <li>I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>I go, I go; look how I go,</li>
  <li>Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">Flower of this purple dye,</li>
  <li>Hit with Cupid's archery,</li>
  <li>Sink in apple of his eye.</li>
  <li>When his love he doth espy,</li>
  <li>Let her shine as gloriously</li>
  <li class="number">As the Venus of the sky.</li>
  <li>When thou wakest, if she be by,</li>
  <li>Beg of her for remedy.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter PUCK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Captain of our fairy band,</li>
  <li>Helena is here at hand;</li>
  <li class="number">And the youth, mistook by me,</li>
  <li>Pleading for a lover's fee.</li>
  <li>Shall we their fond pageant see?</li>
  <li>Lord, what fools these mortals be!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Stand aside: the noise they make</li>
  <li class="number">Will cause Demetrius to awake.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Then will two at once woo one;</li>
  <li>That must needs be sport alone;</li>
  <li>And those things do best please me</li>
  <li>That befal preposterously.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LYSANDER and HELENA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?</li>
  <li>Scorn and derision never come in tears:</li>
  <li>Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,</li>
  <li>In their nativity all truth appears.</li>
  <li>How can these things in me seem scorn to you,</li>
  <li class="number">Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>You do advance your cunning more and more.</li>
  <li>When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!</li>
  <li>These vows are Hermia's: will you give her o'er?</li>
  <li>Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:</li>
  <li class="number">Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,</li>
  <li>Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>I had no judgment when to her I swore.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">Awaking  O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!</li>
  <li>To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?</li>
  <li>Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show</li>
  <li>Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!</li>
  <li>That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,</li>
  <li class="number">Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow</li>
  <li>When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss</li>
  <li>This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent</li>
  <li>To set against me for your merriment:</li>
  <li class="number">If you we re civil and knew courtesy,</li>
  <li>You would not do me thus much injury.</li>
  <li>Can you not hate me, as I know you do,</li>
  <li>But you must join in souls to mock me too?</li>
  <li>If you were men, as men you are in show,</li>
  <li class="number">You would not use a gentle lady so;</li>
  <li>To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,</li>
  <li>When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.</li>
  <li>You both are rivals, and love Hermia;</li>
  <li>And now both rivals, to mock Helena:</li>
  <li class="number">A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,</li>
  <li>To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes</li>
  <li>With your derision! none of noble sort</li>
  <li>Would so offend a virgin, and extort</li>
  <li>A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;</li>
  <li>For you love Hermia; this you know I know:</li>
  <li>And here, with all good will, with all my heart,</li>
  <li>In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;</li>
  <li>And yours of Helena to me bequeath,</li>
  <li class="number">Whom I do love and will do till my death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Never did mockers waste more idle breath.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none:</li>
  <li>If e'er I loved her, all that love is gone.</li>
  <li>My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,</li>
  <li class="number">And now to Helen is it home return'd,</li>
  <li>There to remain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Helen, it is not so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,</li>
  <li>Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.</li>
  <li class="number">Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter HERMIA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,</li>
  <li>The ear more quick of apprehension makes;</li>
  <li>Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,</li>
  <li>It pays the hearing double recompense.</li>
  <li class="number">Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;</li>
  <li>Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound</li>
  <li>But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Why should he stay, whom love doth press to go?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>What love could press Lysander from my side?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">Lysander's love, that would not let him bide,</li>
  <li>Fair Helena, who more engilds the night</li>
  <li>Than all you fiery oes and eyes of light.</li>
  <li>Why seek'st thou me? could not this make thee know,</li>
  <li>The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">You speak not as you think: it cannot be.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Lo, she is one of this confederacy!</li>
  <li>Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three</li>
  <li>To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.</li>
  <li>Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!</li>
  <li class="number">Have you conspired, have you with these contrived</li>
  <li>To bait me with this foul derision?</li>
  <li>Is all the counsel that we two have shared,</li>
  <li>The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,</li>
  <li>When we have chid the hasty-footed time</li>
  <li class="number">For parting us —  O, is it all forgot?</li>
  <li>All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?</li>
  <li>We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,</li>
  <li>Have with our needles created both one flower,</li>
  <li>Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,</li>
  <li class="number">Both warbling of one song, both in one key,</li>
  <li>As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,</li>
  <li>Had been incorporate. So we grow together,</li>
  <li>Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,</li>
  <li>But yet an union in partition;</li>
  <li class="number">Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;</li>
  <li>So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;</li>
  <li>Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,</li>
  <li>Due but to one and crowned with one crest.</li>
  <li>And will you rent our ancient love asunder,</li>
  <li class="number">To join with men in scorning your poor friend?</li>
  <li>It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:</li>
  <li>Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,</li>
  <li>Though I alone do feel the injury.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>I am amazed at your passionate words.</li>
  <li class="number">I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,</li>
  <li>To follow me and praise my eyes and face?</li>
  <li>And made your other love, Demetrius,</li>
  <li>Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,</li>
  <li class="number">To call me goddess, nymph, divine and rare,</li>
  <li>Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this</li>
  <li>To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander</li>
  <li>Deny your love, so rich within his soul,</li>
  <li>And tender me, forsooth, affection,</li>
  <li class="number">But by your setting on, by your consent?</li>
  <li>What thought I be not so in grace as you,</li>
  <li>So hung upon with love, so fortunate,</li>
  <li>But miserable most, to love unloved?</li>
  <li>This you should pity rather than despise.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERNIA</li>
  <li class="number">I understand not what you mean by this.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Ay, do, persever, counterfeit sad looks,</li>
  <li>Make mouths upon me when I turn my back;</li>
  <li>Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up:</li>
  <li>This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.</li>
  <li class="number">If you have any pity, grace, or manners,</li>
  <li>You would not make me such an argument.</li>
  <li>But fare ye well: 'tis partly my own fault;</li>
  <li>Which death or absence soon shall remedy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse:</li>
  <li class="number">My love, my life my soul, fair Helena!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O excellent!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Sweet, do not scorn her so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>If she cannot entreat, I can compel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Thou canst compel no more than she entreat:</li>
  <li class="number">Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers.</li>
  <li>Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do:</li>
  <li>I swear by that which I will lose for thee,</li>
  <li>To prove him false that says I love thee not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I say I love thee more than he can do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Quick, come!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Lysander, whereto tends all this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Away, you Ethiope!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>No, no; he'll</li>
  <li class="number">Seem to break loose; take on as you would follow,</li>
  <li>But yet come not: you are a tame man, go!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose,</li>
  <li>Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Why are you grown so rude? what change is this?</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet love —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Thy love! out, tawny Tartar, out!</li>
  <li>Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Do you not jest?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Yes, sooth; and so do you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>I would I had your bond, for I perceive</li>
  <li>A weak bond holds you: I'll not trust your word.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?</li>
  <li>Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">What, can you do me greater harm than hate?</li>
  <li>Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love!</li>
  <li>Am not I Hermia? are not you Lysander?</li>
  <li>I am as fair now as I was erewhile.</li>
  <li>Since night you loved me; yet since night you left</li>
  <li class="number">me:</li>
  <li>Why, then you left me — O, the gods forbid! — </li>
  <li>In earnest, shall I say?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Ay, by my life;</li>
  <li>And never did desire to see thee more.</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;</li>
  <li>Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest</li>
  <li>That I do hate thee and love Helena.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!</li>
  <li>You thief of love! what, have you come by night</li>
  <li class="number">And stolen my love's heart from him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Fine, i'faith!</li>
  <li>Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,</li>
  <li>No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear</li>
  <li>Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?</li>
  <li class="number">Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.</li>
  <li>Now I perceive that she hath made compare</li>
  <li>Between our statures; she hath urged her height;</li>
  <li>And with her personage, her tall personage,</li>
  <li class="number">Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.</li>
  <li>And are you grown so high in his esteem;</li>
  <li>Because I am so dwarfish and so low?</li>
  <li>How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;</li>
  <li>How low am I? I am not yet so low</li>
  <li class="number">But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,</li>
  <li>Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;</li>
  <li>I have no gift at all in shrewishness;</li>
  <li>I am a right maid for my cowardice:</li>
  <li class="number">Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,</li>
  <li>Because she is something lower than myself,</li>
  <li>That I can match her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Lower! hark, again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.</li>
  <li class="number">I evermore did love you, Hermia,</li>
  <li>Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;</li>
  <li>Save that, in love unto Demetrius,</li>
  <li>I told him of your stealth unto this wood.</li>
  <li>He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;</li>
  <li class="number">But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me</li>
  <li>To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:</li>
  <li>And now, so you will let me quiet go,</li>
  <li>To Athens will I bear my folly back</li>
  <li>And follow you no further: let me go:</li>
  <li class="number">You see how simple and how fond I am.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Why, get you gone: who is't that hinders you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>A foolish heart, that I leave here behind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>What, with Lysander?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>With Demetrius.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li class="number">Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!</li>
  <li>She was a vixen when she went to school;</li>
  <li>And though she be but little, she is fierce.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">'Little' again! nothing but 'low' and 'little'!</li>
  <li>Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?</li>
  <li>Let me come to her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Get you gone, you dwarf;</li>
  <li>You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;</li>
  <li class="number">You bead, you acorn.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>You are too officious</li>
  <li>In her behalf that scorns your services.</li>
  <li>Let her alone: speak not of Helena;</li>
  <li>Take not her part; for, if thou dost intend</li>
  <li class="number">Never so little show of love to her,</li>
  <li>Thou shalt aby it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Now she holds me not;</li>
  <li>Now follow, if thou darest, to try whose right,</li>
  <li>Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">Follow! nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>You, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you:</li>
  <li>Nay, go not back.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>I will not trust you, I,</li>
  <li>Nor longer stay in your curst company.</li>
  <li class="number">Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray,</li>
  <li>My legs are longer though, to run away.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>I am amazed, and know not what to say.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>This is thy negligence: still thou mistakest,</li>
  <li>Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.</li>
  <li>Did not you tell me I should know the man</li>
  <li>By the Athenian garment be had on?</li>
  <li>And so far blameless proves my enterprise,</li>
  <li>That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;</li>
  <li class="number">And so far am I glad it so did sort</li>
  <li>As this their jangling I esteem a sport.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight:</li>
  <li>Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;</li>
  <li>The starry welkin cover thou anon</li>
  <li class="number">With drooping fog as black as Acheron,</li>
  <li>And lead these testy rivals so astray</li>
  <li>As one come not within another's way.</li>
  <li>Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,</li>
  <li>Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;</li>
  <li class="number">And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;</li>
  <li>And from each other look thou lead them thus,</li>
  <li>Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep</li>
  <li>With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep:</li>
  <li>Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;</li>
  <li class="number">Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,</li>
  <li>To take from thence all error with his might,</li>
  <li>And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.</li>
  <li>When they next wake, all this derision</li>
  <li>Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision,</li>
  <li class="number">And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,</li>
  <li>With league whose date till death shall never end.</li>
  <li>Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,</li>
  <li>I'll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;</li>
  <li>And then I will her charmed eye release</li>
  <li class="number">From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,</li>
  <li>For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,</li>
  <li>And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger;</li>
  <li>At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,</li>
  <li class="number">Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all,</li>
  <li>That in crossways and floods have burial,</li>
  <li>Already to their wormy beds are gone;</li>
  <li>For fear lest day should look their shames upon,</li>
  <li>They willfully themselves exile from light</li>
  <li class="number">And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>But we are spirits of another sort:</li>
  <li>I with the morning's love have oft made sport,</li>
  <li>And, like a forester, the groves may tread,</li>
  <li>Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,</li>
  <li class="number">Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,</li>
  <li>Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.</li>
  <li>But, notwithstanding, haste; make no delay:</li>
  <li>We may effect this business yet ere day.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Up and down, up and down,</li>
  <li class="number">I will lead them up and down:</li>
  <li>I am fear'd in field and town:</li>
  <li>Goblin, lead them up and down.</li>
  <li>Here comes one.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter LYSANDER</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>I will be with thee straight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Follow me, then,</li>
  <li>To plainer ground.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit LYSANDER, as following the voice</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter DEMETRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Lysander! speak again:</li>
  <li class="number">Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?</li>
  <li>Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,</li>
  <li>Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,</li>
  <li>And wilt not come? Come, recreant; come, thou child;</li>
  <li class="number">I'll whip thee with a rod: he is defiled</li>
  <li>That draws a sword on thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Yea, art thou there?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Follow my voice: we'll try no manhood here.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter LYSANDER</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>He goes before me and still dares me on:</li>
  <li class="number">When I come where he calls, then he is gone.</li>
  <li>The villain is much lighter-heel'd than I:</li>
  <li>I follow'd fast, but faster he did fly;</li>
  <li>That fallen am I in dark uneven way,</li>
  <li>And here will rest me.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Lies down</li>
  <li class="number">Come, thou gentle day!</li>
  <li>For if but once thou show me thy grey light,</li>
  <li>I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Sleeps</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why comest thou not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Abide me, if thou darest; for well I wot</li>
  <li class="number">Thou runn'st before me, shifting every place,</li>
  <li>And darest not stand, nor look me in the face.</li>
  <li>Where art thou now?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Come hither: I am here.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,</li>
  <li class="number">If ever I thy face by daylight see:</li>
  <li>Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me</li>
  <li>To measure out my length on this cold bed.</li>
  <li>By day's approach look to be visited.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Lies down and sleeps</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter HELENA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>O weary night, O long and tedious night,</li>
  <li class="number">Abate thy hour! Shine comforts from the east,</li>
  <li>That I may back to Athens by daylight,</li>
  <li>From these that my poor company detest:</li>
  <li>And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,</li>
  <li>Steal me awhile from mine own company.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Lies down and sleeps</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Yet but three? Come one more;</li>
  <li>Two of both kinds make up four.</li>
  <li>Here she comes, curst and sad:</li>
  <li>Cupid is a knavish lad,</li>
  <li>Thus to make poor females mad.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter HERMIA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">Never so weary, never so in woe,</li>
  <li>Bedabbled with the dew and torn with briers,</li>
  <li>I can no further crawl, no further go;</li>
  <li>My legs can keep no pace with my desires.</li>
  <li>Here will I rest me till the break of day.</li>
  <li class="number">Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Lies down and sleeps</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>On the ground</li>
  <li>Sleep sound:</li>
  <li>I'll apply</li>
  <li>To your eye,</li>
  <li class="number">Gentle lover, remedy.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER's eyes</li>
  <li>When thou wakest,</li>
  <li>Thou takest</li>
  <li>True delight</li>
  <li>In the sight</li>
  <li class="number">Of thy former lady's eye:</li>
  <li>And the country proverb known,</li>
  <li>That every man should take his own,</li>
  <li>In your waking shall be shown:</li>
  <li>Jack shall have Jill;</li>
  <li class="number">Nought shall go ill;</li>
  <li>The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT IV</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA lying asleep.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter TITANIA and BOTTOM; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH,
MUSTARDSEED, and other Fairies attending; OBERON
behind unseen</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,</li>
  <li>While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,</li>
  <li>And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,</li>
  <li>And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">Where's Peaseblossom?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PEASEBLOSSOM</li>
  <li>Ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Scratch my head Peaseblossom. Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">COBWEB</li>
  <li>Ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Mounsieur Cobweb, good mounsieur, get you your</li>
  <li class="number">weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped</li>
  <li>humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good</li>
  <li>mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret</li>
  <li>yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and,</li>
  <li>good mounsieur, have a care the honey-bag break not;</li>
  <li class="number">I would be loath to have you overflown with a</li>
  <li>honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur Mustardseed?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MUSTARDSEED</li>
  <li>Ready.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you,</li>
  <li>leave your courtesy, good mounsieur.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">MUSTARDSEED</li>
  <li class="number">What's your Will?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb</li>
  <li>to scratch. I must to the barber's, monsieur; for</li>
  <li>methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I</li>
  <li>am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,</li>
  <li class="number">I must scratch.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>What, wilt thou hear some music,</li>
  <li>my sweet love?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have</li>
  <li>the tongs and the bones.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li class="number">Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Truly, a peck of provender: I could munch your good</li>
  <li>dry oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle</li>
  <li>of hay: good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>I have a venturous fairy that shall seek</li>
  <li class="number">The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas.</li>
  <li>But, I pray you, let none of your people stir me: I</li>
  <li>have an exposition of sleep come upon me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.</li>
  <li class="number">Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt fairies</li>
  <li>So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle</li>
  <li>Gently entwist; the female ivy so</li>
  <li>Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.</li>
  <li>O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">They sleep</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter PUCK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li class="number">Advancing  Welcome, good Robin.</li>
  <li>See'st thou this sweet sight?</li>
  <li>Her dotage now I do begin to pity:</li>
  <li>For, meeting her of late behind the wood,</li>
  <li>Seeking sweet favours from this hateful fool,</li>
  <li class="number">I did upbraid her and fall out with her;</li>
  <li>For she his hairy temples then had rounded</li>
  <li>With a coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;</li>
  <li>And that same dew, which sometime on the buds</li>
  <li>Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls,</li>
  <li class="number">Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes</li>
  <li>Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.</li>
  <li>When I had at my pleasure taunted her</li>
  <li>And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,</li>
  <li>I then did ask of her her changeling child;</li>
  <li class="number">Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent</li>
  <li>To bear him to my bower in fairy land.</li>
  <li>And now I have the boy, I will undo</li>
  <li>This hateful imperfection of her eyes:</li>
  <li>And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp</li>
  <li class="number">From off the head of this Athenian swain;</li>
  <li>That, he awaking when the other do,</li>
  <li>May all to Athens back again repair</li>
  <li>And think no more of this night's accidents</li>
  <li>But as the fierce vexation of a dream.</li>
  <li class="number">But first I will release the fairy queen.</li>
  <li>Be as thou wast wont to be;</li>
  <li>See as thou wast wont to see:</li>
  <li>Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower</li>
  <li>Hath such force and blessed power.</li>
  <li class="number">Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>My Oberon! what visions have I seen!</li>
  <li>Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>There lies your love.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>How came these things to pass?</li>
  <li class="number">O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.</li>
  <li>Titania, music call; and strike more dead</li>
  <li>Than common sleep of all these five the sense.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Music, ho! music, such as charmeth sleep!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Music, still</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Now, when thou wakest, with thine</li>
  <li>own fool's eyes peep.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,</li>
  <li>And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.</li>
  <li>Now thou and I are new in amity,</li>
  <li class="number">And will to-morrow midnight solemnly</li>
  <li>Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,</li>
  <li>And bless it to all fair prosperity:</li>
  <li>There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be</li>
  <li>Wedded, with Theseus, all in jollity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li class="number">Fairy king, attend, and mark:</li>
  <li>I do hear the morning lark.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Then, my queen, in silence sad,</li>
  <li>Trip we after the night's shade:</li>
  <li>We the globe can compass soon,</li>
  <li class="number">Swifter than the wandering moon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>Come, my lord, and in our flight</li>
  <li>Tell me how it came this night</li>
  <li>That I sleeping here was found</li>
  <li>With these mortals on the ground.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Horns winded within</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">Go, one of you, find out the forester;</li>
  <li>For now our observation is perform'd;</li>
  <li>And since we have the vaward of the day,</li>
  <li>My love shall hear the music of my hounds.</li>
  <li>Uncouple in the western valley; let them go:</li>
  <li class="number">Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit an Attendant</li>
  <li>We will, fair queen, up to the mountain's top,</li>
  <li>And mark the musical confusion</li>
  <li>Of hounds and echo in conjunction.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,</li>
  <li class="number">When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear</li>
  <li>With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear</li>
  <li>Such gallant chiding: for, besides the groves,</li>
  <li>The skies, the fountains, every region near</li>
  <li>Seem'd all one mutual cry: I never heard</li>
  <li class="number">So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,</li>
  <li>So flew'd, so sanded, and their heads are hung</li>
  <li>With ears that sweep away the morning dew;</li>
  <li>Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;</li>
  <li class="number">Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,</li>
  <li>Each under each. A cry more tuneable</li>
  <li>Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,</li>
  <li>In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly:</li>
  <li>Judge when you hear. But, soft! what nymphs are these?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li class="number">My lord, this is my daughter here asleep;</li>
  <li>And this, Lysander; this Demetrius is;</li>
  <li>This Helena, old Nedar's Helena:</li>
  <li>I wonder of their being here together.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>No doubt they rose up early to observe</li>
  <li class="number">The rite of May, and hearing our intent,</li>
  <li>Came here in grace our solemnity.</li>
  <li>But speak, Egeus; is not this the day</li>
  <li>That Hermia should give answer of her choice?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>It is, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Horns and shout within. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS,
HELENA, and HERMIA wake and start up</li>
  <li>Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:</li>
  <li>Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Pardon, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>I pray you all, stand up.</li>
  <li class="number">I know you two are rival enemies:</li>
  <li>How comes this gentle concord in the world,</li>
  <li>That hatred is so far from jealousy,</li>
  <li>To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>My lord, I shall reply amazedly,</li>
  <li class="number">Half sleep, half waking: but as yet, I swear,</li>
  <li>I cannot truly say how I came here;</li>
  <li>But, as I think —  for truly would I speak,</li>
  <li>And now do I bethink me, so it is —  </li>
  <li>I came with Hermia hither: our intent</li>
  <li class="number">Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,</li>
  <li>Without the peril of the Athenian law.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">EGEUS</li>
  <li>Enough, enough, my lord; you have enough:</li>
  <li>I beg the law, the law, upon his head.</li>
  <li>They would have stolen away; they would, Demetrius,</li>
  <li class="number">Thereby to have defeated you and me,</li>
  <li>You of your wife and me of my consent,</li>
  <li>Of my consent that she should be your wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,</li>
  <li>Of this their purpose hither to this wood;</li>
  <li class="number">And I in fury hither follow'd them,</li>
  <li>Fair Helena in fancy following me.</li>
  <li>But, my good lord, I wot not by what power —  </li>
  <li>But by some power it is —  my love to Hermia,</li>
  <li>Melted as the snow, seems to me now</li>
  <li class="number">As the remembrance of an idle gaud</li>
  <li>Which in my childhood I did dote upon;</li>
  <li>And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,</li>
  <li>The object and the pleasure of mine eye,</li>
  <li>Is only Helena. To her, my lord,</li>
  <li class="number">Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia:</li>
  <li>But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food;</li>
  <li>But, as in health, come to my natural taste,</li>
  <li>Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,</li>
  <li>And will for evermore be true to it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">Fair lovers, you are fortunately met:</li>
  <li>Of this discourse we more will hear anon.</li>
  <li>Egeus, I will overbear your will;</li>
  <li>For in the temple by and by with us</li>
  <li>These couples shall eternally be knit:</li>
  <li class="number">And, for the morning now is something worn,</li>
  <li>Our purposed hunting shall be set aside.</li>
  <li>Away with us to Athens; three and three,</li>
  <li>We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.</li>
  <li>Come, Hippolyta.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">These things seem small and undistinguishable,</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li>Methinks I see these things with parted eye,</li>
  <li>When every thing seems double.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>So methinks:</li>
  <li>And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,</li>
  <li class="number">Mine own, and not mine own.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Are you sure</li>
  <li>That we are awake? It seems to me</li>
  <li>That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think</li>
  <li>The duke was here, and bid us follow him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HERMIA</li>
  <li class="number">Yea; and my father.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HELENA</li>
  <li>And Hippolyta.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>And he did bid us follow to the temple.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him</li>
  <li>And by the way let us recount our dreams.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">Awaking  When my cue comes, call me, and I will</li>
  <li>answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho!</li>
  <li>Peter Quince! Flute, the bellows-mender! Snout,</li>
  <li>the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, stolen</li>
  <li>hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare</li>
  <li class="number">vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to</li>
  <li>say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go</li>
  <li>about to expound this dream. Methought I was — there</li>
  <li>is no man can tell what. Methought I was —  and</li>
  <li>methought I had —  but man is but a patched fool, if</li>
  <li class="number">he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye</li>
  <li>of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not</li>
  <li>seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue</li>
  <li>to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream</li>
  <li>was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of</li>
  <li class="number">this dream: it shall be called Bottom's Dream,</li>
  <li>because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the</li>
  <li>latter end of a play, before the duke:</li>
  <li>peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall</li>
  <li>sing it at her death.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  Athens. QUINCE'S house.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Have you sent to Bottom's house? is he come home yet?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">STARVELING</li>
  <li>He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is</li>
  <li>transported.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>If he come not, then the play is marred: it goes</li>
  <li class="number">not forward, doth it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>It is not possible: you have not a man in all</li>
  <li>Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>No, he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft</li>
  <li>man in Athens.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">Yea and the best person too; and he is a very</li>
  <li>paramour for a sweet voice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>You must say 'paragon:' a paramour is, God bless us,</li>
  <li>a thing of naught.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter SNUG</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">SNUG</li>
  <li>Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and</li>
  <li class="number">there is two or three lords and ladies more married:</li>
  <li>if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made</li>
  <li>men.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">FLUTE</li>
  <li>O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a</li>
  <li>day during his life; he could not have 'scaped</li>
  <li class="number">sixpence a day: an the duke had not given him</li>
  <li>sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll be hanged;</li>
  <li>he would have deserved it: sixpence a day in</li>
  <li>Pyramus, or nothing.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter BOTTOM</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Where are these lads? where are these hearts?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li class="number">Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Masters, I am to discourse wonders: but ask me not</li>
  <li>what; for if I tell you, I am no true Athenian. I</li>
  <li>will tell you every thing, right as it fell out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">QUINCE</li>
  <li>Let us hear, sweet Bottom.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li class="number">Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that</li>
  <li>the duke hath dined. Get your apparel together,</li>
  <li>good strings to your beards, new ribbons to your</li>
  <li>pumps; meet presently at the palace; every man look</li>
  <li>o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our</li>
  <li class="number">play is preferred. In any case, let Thisby have</li>
  <li>clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion</li>
  <li>pair his nails, for they shall hang out for the</li>
  <li>lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no onions</li>
  <li>nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I</li>
  <li class="number">do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet</li>
  <li>comedy. No more words: away! go, away!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT V</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  Athens. The palace of THESEUS.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, Lords and
Attendants</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>'Tis strange my Theseus, that these</li>
  <li>lovers speak of.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>More strange than true: I never may believe</li>
  <li>These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.</li>
  <li class="number">Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,</li>
  <li>Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend</li>
  <li>More than cool reason ever comprehends.</li>
  <li>The lunatic, the lover and the poet</li>
  <li>Are of imagination all compact:</li>
  <li class="number">One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,</li>
  <li>That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,</li>
  <li>Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:</li>
  <li>The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,</li>
  <li>Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;</li>
  <li class="number">And as imagination bodies forth</li>
  <li>The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen</li>
  <li>Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing</li>
  <li>A local habitation and a name.</li>
  <li>Such tricks hath strong imagination,</li>
  <li class="number">That if it would but apprehend some joy,</li>
  <li>It comprehends some bringer of that joy;</li>
  <li>Or in the night, imagining some fear,</li>
  <li>How easy is a bush supposed a bear!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>But all the story of the night told over,</li>
  <li class="number">And all their minds transfigured so together,</li>
  <li>More witnesseth than fancy's images</li>
  <li>And grows to something of great constancy;</li>
  <li>But, howsoever, strange and admirable.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA</li>
  <li class="number">Joy, gentle friends! joy and fresh days of love</li>
  <li>Accompany your hearts!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>More than to us</li>
  <li>Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,</li>
  <li class="number">To wear away this long age of three hours</li>
  <li>Between our after-supper and bed-time?</li>
  <li>Where is our usual manager of mirth?</li>
  <li>What revels are in hand? Is there no play,</li>
  <li>To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?</li>
  <li class="number">Call Philostrate.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li>Here, mighty Theseus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Say, what abridgement have you for this evening?</li>
  <li>What masque? what music? How shall we beguile</li>
  <li>The lazy time, if not with some delight?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li class="number">There is a brief how many sports are ripe:</li>
  <li>Make choice of which your highness will see first.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Giving a paper</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Reads  'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung</li>
  <li>By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'</li>
  <li>We'll none of that: that have I told my love,</li>
  <li class="number">In glory of my kinsman Hercules.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Reads</li>
  <li>'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,</li>
  <li>Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'</li>
  <li>That is an old device; and it was play'd</li>
  <li>When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Reads</li>
  <li class="number">'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death</li>
  <li>Of Learning, late deceased in beggary.'</li>
  <li>That is some satire, keen and critical,</li>
  <li>Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Reads</li>
  <li>'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus</li>
  <li class="number">And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'</li>
  <li>Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!</li>
  <li>That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.</li>
  <li>How shall we find the concord of this discord?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li>A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,</li>
  <li class="number">Which is as brief as I have known a play;</li>
  <li>But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,</li>
  <li>Which makes it tedious; for in all the play</li>
  <li>There is not one word apt, one player fitted:</li>
  <li>And tragical, my noble lord, it is;</li>
  <li class="number">For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.</li>
  <li>Which, when I saw rehearsed, I must confess,</li>
  <li>Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears</li>
  <li>The passion of loud laughter never shed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>What are they that do play it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li class="number">Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,</li>
  <li>Which never labour'd in their minds till now,</li>
  <li>And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories</li>
  <li>With this same play, against your nuptial.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>And we will hear it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li class="number">No, my noble lord;</li>
  <li>It is not for you: I have heard it over,</li>
  <li>And it is nothing, nothing in the world;</li>
  <li>Unless you can find sport in their intents,</li>
  <li>Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,</li>
  <li class="number">To do you service.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>I will hear that play;</li>
  <li>For never anything can be amiss,</li>
  <li>When simpleness and duty tender it.</li>
  <li>Go, bring them in: and take your places, ladies.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit PHILOSTRATE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li class="number">I love not to see wretchedness o'er charged</li>
  <li>And duty in his service perishing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>He says they can do nothing in this kind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.</li>
  <li class="number">Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:</li>
  <li>And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect</li>
  <li>Takes it in might, not merit.</li>
  <li>Where I have come, great clerks have purposed</li>
  <li>To greet me with premeditated welcomes;</li>
  <li class="number">Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,</li>
  <li>Make periods in the midst of sentences,</li>
  <li>Throttle their practised accent in their fears</li>
  <li>And in conclusion dumbly have broke off,</li>
  <li>Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,</li>
  <li class="number">Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;</li>
  <li>And in the modesty of fearful duty</li>
  <li>I read as much as from the rattling tongue</li>
  <li>Of saucy and audacious eloquence.</li>
  <li>Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity</li>
  <li class="number">In least speak most, to my capacity.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter PHILOSTRATE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PHILOSTRATE</li>
  <li>So please your grace, the Prologue is address'd.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Let him approach.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Flourish of trumpets</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter QUINCE for the Prologue</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Prologue</li>
  <li>If we offend, it is with our good will.</li>
  <li>That you should think, we come not to offend,</li>
  <li class="number">But with good will. To show our simple skill,</li>
  <li>That is the true beginning of our end.</li>
  <li>Consider then we come but in despite.</li>
  <li>We do not come as minding to contest you,</li>
  <li>Our true intent is. All for your delight</li>
  <li class="number">We are not here. That you should here repent you,</li>
  <li>The actors are at hand and by their show</li>
  <li>You shall know all that you are like to know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>This fellow doth not stand upon points.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows</li>
  <li class="number">not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not</li>
  <li>enough to speak, but to speak true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child</li>
  <li>on a recorder; a sound, but not in government.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>His speech, was like a tangled chain; nothing</li>
  <li class="number">impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Pyramus and Thisbe, Wall, Moonshine, and Lion</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Prologue</li>
  <li>Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;</li>
  <li>But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.</li>
  <li>This man is Pyramus, if you would know;</li>
  <li>This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.</li>
  <li class="number">This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present</li>
  <li>Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;</li>
  <li>And through Wall's chink, poor souls, they are content</li>
  <li>To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.</li>
  <li>This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,</li>
  <li class="number">Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,</li>
  <li>By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn</li>
  <li>To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.</li>
  <li>This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,</li>
  <li>The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,</li>
  <li class="number">Did scare away, or rather did affright;</li>
  <li>And, as she fled, her mantle she did fall,</li>
  <li>Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.</li>
  <li>Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,</li>
  <li>And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain:</li>
  <li class="number">Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,</li>
  <li>He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast;</li>
  <li>And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,</li>
  <li>His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,</li>
  <li>Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain</li>
  <li class="number">At large discourse, while here they do remain.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Prologue, Thisbe, Lion, and Moonshine</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>I wonder if the lion be to speak.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Wall</li>
  <li>In this same interlude it doth befall</li>
  <li>That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;</li>
  <li class="number">And such a wall, as I would have you think,</li>
  <li>That had in it a crannied hole or chink,</li>
  <li>Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,</li>
  <li>Did whisper often very secretly.</li>
  <li>This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show</li>
  <li class="number">That I am that same wall; the truth is so:</li>
  <li>And this the cranny is, right and sinister,</li>
  <li>Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard</li>
  <li class="number">discourse, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Pyramus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Pyramus draws near the wall: silence!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!</li>
  <li>O night, which ever art when day is not!</li>
  <li>O night, O night! alack, alack, alack,</li>
  <li class="number">I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!</li>
  <li>And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,</li>
  <li>That stand'st between her father's ground and mine!</li>
  <li>Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,</li>
  <li>Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne!</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Wall holds up his fingers</li>
  <li class="number">Thanks, courteous wall: Jove shield thee well for this!</li>
  <li>But what see I? No Thisby do I see.</li>
  <li>O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss!</li>
  <li>Cursed be thy stones for thus deceiving me!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li class="number">No, in truth, sir, he should not. 'Deceiving me'</li>
  <li>is Thisby's cue: she is to enter now, and I am to</li>
  <li>spy her through the wall. You shall see, it will</li>
  <li>fall pat as I told you. Yonder she comes.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Thisbe</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li>O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans,</li>
  <li class="number">For parting my fair Pyramus and me!</li>
  <li>My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,</li>
  <li>Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>I see a voice: now will I to the chink,</li>
  <li>To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. Thisby!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li class="number">My love thou art, my love I think.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;</li>
  <li>And, like Limander, am I trusty still.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li>And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li class="number">As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>O kiss me through the hole of this vile wall!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li>I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li>'Tide life, 'tide death, I come without delay.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Pyramus and Thisbe</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Wall</li>
  <li class="number">Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;</li>
  <li>And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Now is the mural down between the two neighbours.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear</li>
  <li>without warning.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li class="number">This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst</li>
  <li>are no worse, if imagination amend them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>If we imagine no worse of them than they of</li>
  <li class="number">themselves, they may pass for excellent men. Here</li>
  <li>come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Lion and Moonshine</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Lion</li>
  <li>You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear</li>
  <li>The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,</li>
  <li>May now perchance both quake and tremble here,</li>
  <li class="number">When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.</li>
  <li>Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am</li>
  <li>A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;</li>
  <li>For, if I should as lion come in strife</li>
  <li>Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">A very gentle beast, of a good conscience.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>This lion is a very fox for his valour.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>True; and a goose for his discretion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his</li>
  <li class="number">discretion; and the fox carries the goose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour;</li>
  <li>for the goose carries not the fox. It is well:</li>
  <li>leave it to his discretion, and let us listen to the moon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Moonshine</li>
  <li>This lanthorn doth the horned moon present; — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">He should have worn the horns on his head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>He is no crescent, and his horns are</li>
  <li>invisible within the circumference.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Moonshine</li>
  <li>This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;</li>
  <li>Myself the man i' the moon do seem to be.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">This is the greatest error of all the rest: the man</li>
  <li>should be put into the lanthorn. How is it else the</li>
  <li>man i' the moon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>He dares not come there for the candle; for, you</li>
  <li>see, it is already in snuff.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li class="number">I am aweary of this moon: would he would change!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>It appears, by his small light of discretion, that</li>
  <li>he is in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all</li>
  <li>reason, we must stay the time.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Proceed, Moon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Moonshine</li>
  <li class="number">All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the</li>
  <li>lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this</li>
  <li>thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Why, all these should be in the lanthorn; for all</li>
  <li>these are in the moon. But, silence! here comes Thisbe.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Thisbe</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li class="number">This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Lion</li>
  <li>Roaring  Oh — </li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Thisbe runs off</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>Well roared, Lion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Well run, Thisbe.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a</li>
  <li class="number">good grace.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">The Lion shakes Thisbe's mantle, and exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Well moused, Lion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>And so the lion vanished.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>And then came Pyramus.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Pyramus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;</li>
  <li class="number">I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;</li>
  <li>For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,</li>
  <li>I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.</li>
  <li>But stay, O spite!</li>
  <li>But mark, poor knight,</li>
  <li class="number">What dreadful dole is here!</li>
  <li>Eyes, do you see?</li>
  <li>How can it be?</li>
  <li>O dainty duck! O dear!</li>
  <li>Thy mantle good,</li>
  <li class="number">What, stain'd with blood!</li>
  <li>Approach, ye Furies fell!</li>
  <li>O Fates, come, come,</li>
  <li>Cut thread and thrum;</li>
  <li>Quail, crush, conclude, and quell!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would</li>
  <li>go near to make a man look sad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Pyramus</li>
  <li>O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?</li>
  <li>Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear:</li>
  <li class="number">Which is — no, no — which was the fairest dame</li>
  <li>That lived, that loved, that liked, that look'd</li>
  <li>with cheer.</li>
  <li>Come, tears, confound;</li>
  <li>Out, sword, and wound</li>
  <li class="number">The pap of Pyramus;</li>
  <li>Ay, that left pap,</li>
  <li>Where heart doth hop:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Stabs himself</li>
  <li>Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.</li>
  <li>Now am I dead,</li>
  <li class="number">Now am I fled;</li>
  <li>My soul is in the sky:</li>
  <li>Tongue, lose thy light;</li>
  <li>Moon take thy flight:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Moonshine</li>
  <li>Now die, die, die, die, die.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Dies</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and</li>
  <li>prove an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes</li>
  <li class="number">back and finds her lover?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and</li>
  <li>her passion ends the play.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter Thisbe</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">HIPPOLYTA</li>
  <li>Methinks she should not use a long one for such a</li>
  <li>Pyramus: I hope she will be brief.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which</li>
  <li>Thisbe, is the better; he for a man, God warrant us;</li>
  <li>she for a woman, God bless us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LYSANDER</li>
  <li>She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li>And thus she means, videlicet: — </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Thisbe</li>
  <li class="number">Asleep, my love?</li>
  <li>What, dead, my dove?</li>
  <li>O Pyramus, arise!</li>
  <li>Speak, speak. Quite dumb?</li>
  <li>Dead, dead? A tomb</li>
  <li class="number">Must cover thy sweet eyes.</li>
  <li>These My lips,</li>
  <li>This cherry nose,</li>
  <li>These yellow cowslip cheeks,</li>
  <li>Are gone, are gone:</li>
  <li class="number">Lovers, make moan:</li>
  <li>His eyes were green as leeks.</li>
  <li>O Sisters Three,</li>
  <li>Come, come to me,</li>
  <li>With hands as pale as milk;</li>
  <li class="number">Lay them in gore,</li>
  <li>Since you have shore</li>
  <li>With shears his thread of silk.</li>
  <li>Tongue, not a word:</li>
  <li>Come, trusty sword;</li>
  <li class="number">Come, blade, my breast imbrue:</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Stabs herself</li>
  <li>And, farewell, friends;</li>
  <li>Thus Thisby ends:</li>
  <li>Adieu, adieu, adieu.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Dies</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li>Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DEMETRIUS</li>
  <li class="number">Ay, and Wall too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BOTTOM</li>
  <li>Starting up  No assure you; the wall is down that</li>
  <li>parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the</li>
  <li>epilogue, or to hear a Bergomask dance between two</li>
  <li>of our company?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">THESEUS</li>
  <li class="number">No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no</li>
  <li>excuse. Never excuse; for when the players are all</li>
  <li>dead, there needs none to be blamed. Marry, if he</li>
  <li>that writ it had played Pyramus and hanged himself</li>
  <li>in Thisbe's garter, it would have been a fine</li>
  <li class="number">tragedy: and so it is, truly; and very notably</li>
  <li>discharged. But come, your Bergomask: let your</li>
  <li>epilogue alone.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">A dance</li>
  <li>The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:</li>
  <li>Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.</li>
  <li class="number">I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn</li>
  <li>As much as we this night have overwatch'd.</li>
  <li>This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled</li>
  <li>The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.</li>
  <li>A fortnight hold we this solemnity,</li>
  <li class="number">In nightly revels and new jollity.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter PUCK</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>Now the hungry lion roars,</li>
  <li>And the wolf behowls the moon;</li>
  <li>Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,</li>
  <li>All with weary task fordone.</li>
  <li class="number">Now the wasted brands do glow,</li>
  <li>Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,</li>
  <li>Puts the wretch that lies in woe</li>
  <li>In remembrance of a shroud.</li>
  <li>Now it is the time of night</li>
  <li class="number">That the graves all gaping wide,</li>
  <li>Every one lets forth his sprite,</li>
  <li>In the church-way paths to glide:</li>
  <li>And we fairies, that do run</li>
  <li>By the triple Hecate's team,</li>
  <li class="number">From the presence of the sun,</li>
  <li>Following darkness like a dream,</li>
  <li>Now are frolic: not a mouse</li>
  <li>Shall disturb this hallow'd house:</li>
  <li>I am sent with broom before,</li>
  <li class="number">To sweep the dust behind the door.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter OBERON and TITANIA with their train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Through the house give gathering light,</li>
  <li>By the dead and drowsy fire:</li>
  <li>Every elf and fairy sprite</li>
  <li>Hop as light as bird from brier;</li>
  <li class="number">And this ditty, after me,</li>
  <li>Sing, and dance it trippingly.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">TITANIA</li>
  <li>First, rehearse your song by rote</li>
  <li>To each word a warbling note:</li>
  <li>Hand in hand, with fairy grace,</li>
  <li class="number">Will we sing, and bless this place.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Song and dance</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OBERON</li>
  <li>Now, until the break of day,</li>
  <li>Through this house each fairy stray.</li>
  <li>To the best bride-bed will we,</li>
  <li>Which by us shall blessed be;</li>
  <li class="number">And the issue there create</li>
  <li>Ever shall be fortunate.</li>
  <li>So shall all the couples three</li>
  <li>Ever true in loving be;</li>
  <li>And the blots of Nature's hand</li>
  <li class="number">Shall not in their issue stand;</li>
  <li>Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,</li>
  <li>Nor mark prodigious, such as are</li>
  <li>Despised in nativity,</li>
  <li>Shall upon their children be.</li>
  <li class="number">With this field-dew consecrate,</li>
  <li>Every fairy take his gait;</li>
  <li>And each several chamber bless,</li>
  <li>Through this palace, with sweet peace;</li>
  <li>And the owner of it blest</li>
  <li class="number">Ever shall in safety rest.</li>
  <li>Trip away; make no stay;</li>
  <li>Meet me all by break of day.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt OBERON, TITANIA, and train</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PUCK</li>
  <li>If we shadows have offended,</li>
  <li>Think but this, and all is mended,</li>
  <li class="number">That you have but slumber'd here</li>
  <li>While these visions did appear.</li>
  <li>And this weak and idle theme,</li>
  <li>No more yielding but a dream,</li>
  <li>Gentles, do not reprehend:</li>
  <li class="number">if you pardon, we will mend:</li>
  <li>And, as I am an honest Puck,</li>
  <li>If we have unearned luck</li>
  <li>Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,</li>
  <li>We will make amends ere long;</li>
  <li class="number">Else the Puck a liar call;</li>
  <li>So, good night unto you all.</li>
  <li>Give me your hands, if we be friends,</li>
  <li>And Robin shall restore amends.</li>
</ol>

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